By Juan Montoya
Back in 1988, Juan Flores (not his name) was all of 18 years old.
He admits now that he was "en malos pasos," that is, he fell in to the temptations of the barrio (La 421) and was arrested and charged with burglary of a habitation.
"I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and got caught doing bad things," he recalled recently. "I went to court and faced the music."
If you think the wheels of the gods move slowly, the wheels of justice in Cameron County moved even slower.
Flores' case inched its way to the bitter end. His court appointed attorney managed to get delays, changes of venue to another court, until there was nothing left to do but to face the music and he pleaded guilty. He was granted probation for the first offense, but that was later revoked when he missed some meetings with his probation officer.
After revocation, in 1996 - the court imposed a sentence of 10 years in the Texas correctional System. Flores was sent upstate and served his time. He was released after he served almost five years in the penitentiary.
Since then, Flores has walked the straight and narrow, starting a family and living within the law. That charge of burglary when he was 18 is still the only offense on his criminal record. He has worked in restaurants and lounges and eventually climbed up to a manager's position. He has a 15-year-old daughter now in high school. His older-model pickup truck is the only family vehicle that takes him to and from work and transportation for the family.
About two months ago, he went to the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's office to renew his license plates. He was told he could not until he paid court costs for his conviction for the crime he committed 30 years ago. By now, that fine - under the Texas Scofflaw Program - had climbed to $1,055, an amount Flores found impossible to pay.
"I though that I had paid with the time I served in prison," Flores said recently. "Now, 30 years later, I can;t get my license plates renewed. I was never told that I had to pay this back then when I went to jail."
The Texas Scofflaw Program was a section of the Texas Transportation Code, designed to help county and municipal governments hold law breakers accountable, by allowing the Tax Assessor-Collector of a county to reject vehicle registrations for customers with outstanding fines, fees, taxes, or who have failed to appear in a municipal or county court.
It was meant to help counties to increase collections of justice of the peace, county court of law, county clerk, property taxes and municipal court fines and fees.
Unable to pay the fines with his income, Flores filed a form with the court providing his income and showing his inability to pay. After a hearing in the same court where he was convicted, the judge agreed to waive the fine and removed him from the scofflaw list.
"If you owe any court or traffic fines, you might want to check to see whether you're on that list," said a Cameron County District Court Clerk's office. "If it happened at a county court-of-law, you check with the Cameron County Clerk. If it happened in a district court, you check with us."
The City of Brownsville is also a member of the county's Scofflaw Program.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicle states that: "Senate Bill 1913, effective September 1, 2017, amends Transportation Code, Section 502.010, specifying a county tax assessor-collector cannot deny registration to an individual found to be indigent by a court with jurisdiction over the offense.
"Senate Bill 1913 provides that a waiver provided by a court with jurisdiction over an offense must be accepted as a type of discharge by a county tax assessor-collector as proof the fine or fee is resolved. A court with jurisdiction over an offense for an indigent individual must alert the county tax assessor-collector the motor vehicle registration may not be refused.
"Additionally, Senate Bill 1913 specifies a scofflaw remark applied as a result of a failure to appear for a fine or fee expires on the second anniversary of when the information was provided to the local county tax assessor-collector and may not be used to refuse registration after that date.
"County tax assessor-collectors who maintain a scofflaw program will be responsible for ensuring expired scofflaws are removed from the motor vehicle record in accordance with this provision. It is important county tax assessor-collectors contracted with the department notify the department to remove the scofflaw remark upon receiving notification from a court with jurisdiction."